Gordon McLean

Who are the experts?

by Gordon McLean, on September 8, 2010, in Ciboodler Blogs, about , , , , , , , .

In a couple of weeks time I’m going to an industry conference where I’ll be standing in front of a room of fellow professionals and talking about social media models and the different ways they can be used to create, disseminate, and collect information. Unfortunately last night instead of diligently researching and preparing my presentation I was at the cinema watching Some Like It Hot (yes, the Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon movie). I mention this only as a means to highlight the fact that I am far from being an expert when it comes to how best to use social media.

That said, as we are hurtling forwards with our plans to unleash Ciboodle Crowd within our own developer community website, I guess it’s safe to say that I’m not a beginner either. Hey, if nothing else it’ll give me something to talk about when I’m at the conference.

The crossover of information as part of the customer experience remains an interesting one and with social media driving more and more informal interactions between customers, it’s becoming more prevalent in both my profession (Technical Communications) and the wider Customer Relationship Management industry. Continue reading…

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Steven Thurlow

Don’t forget the cake!

by Steven Thurlow, on August 31, 2010, in Ciboodler Blogs, about , , , , , .

I was at a friend’s dual celebration of birthday and wedding anniversary recently, and as part of the occasion someone had prepared two fantastic cakes, which were both amazing to behold and a delight to eat. While the appearance was all to do with the icing, the taste and nutrition were defined by what was under the icing – the cake itself.

The recent market buzz around engaging the social customer is a welcome and necessary reflection that the game has changed. Customers don’t just want to be in control, they now have the tools to do so in a way that can bypass the best marketing and PR efforts of the enterprise. Customers now trust each other and people they perceive as independent far more than the enterprise’s own view.

Technology has fundamentally empowered the customer and exposed the enterprise, with a shortening of cycle times and raising of expectations. Customers can legitimately ask the ‘why?’ question – why have you not shipped it when you said it was in stock? Why are new customers getting the same product as me for less? Why does your contact centre not know more than I do from online research about your products? It is set to accelerate still further as mobile technology becomes a predominant access method.

Continue reading…

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CJ Werley

Are You Ready to Serve the Now Generation?

by CJ Werley, on August 17, 2010, in Ciboodler Blogs, about , , , , .

Self-service is increasingly being recognized as a critical path of the customer experience, prompting some self styled business gurus to quip that in fact, “the best service is no service.”

While many of us prefer the hand-holding that only human to human interaction can facilitate, the data suggests that a majority of us prefer to be the masters of our own destiny; the captains of our own ships; the makers of our own fate. After all, if social psychologists are to be believed then those with a higher internal locus of control make far happier individuals. But enough with the pop-psychology 101.

Continue reading…

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Paul White

Scanners: Can you drown out the pull of community recommendations?

by Paul White, on August 10, 2010, in Ciboodler Blogs, about , , , .

I’ve noticed a trend – a real incarnation of the soothsaying visionaries of Hollywood’s yesteryear. Not Light Sabers (disappointingly yet) or particle transportation (when will we actually get this for goodness sake?)… Instead, cast yourselves (or your IMDB research if you’re < 30ish) back to 1981.

The central theme to this post is a classic, videotape movie – ‘Scanners’. In this B-list horror flick, 273 of the 4 billion humans on Earth were adorned with super telepathic-type powers – able to hear the thoughts of others around them.  Sounds cool to a teenager; many mischievous ideas crossed my mind at the time, and I thought it might be an even cooler power than being invisible at one stage.

However, as the director (David Cronenberg, apparently) helped us look deeper – like most super-‘hero’ stories, this was not a great weapon that was without its baggage… In fact, the gifted ones were tragically cursed. They couldn’t get the ‘noise’ out of their heads!!

Some tried drilling into their own heads, which was a little bit stupid, let’s be honest.  Gift? Curse? Better than being invisible? The real problem was the indiscriminant volume of data they were exposed to; they couldn’t filter or make use of it in any meaningful way.  It completely consumed their consciousness and drove them to complete distraction, and eventually madness! So much noise, so little useful information.

Having taken inspiration from this film, lately I have turned Scanner.  Not, like a really powerful one, just entry-level really.

Continue reading…

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Marketing Team

Wanted: New Ciboodlers!

by Marketing Team, on August 9, 2010, in Ciboodler Blogs, about , , , .

Sword Ciboodle USA is growing! Since January 2010, our US staff base has increased by 50% – and with new & existing client projects continuing to flood in we are looking to grow this number by even more before 2010 is out…

The positions we are looking to fill include:

So, do you want to take the next step and join our merry crew?  Please email your CV and covering letter to us here , it’ll be the best email you’ve sent in a long time!

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Mason Power

You never get a second chance to be an early adopter

by Mason Power, on August 4, 2010, in Guest Blogs, about , , , .

For those sadists among us in the broader Sword family who have made “insurance technology” our chosen profession, we were lured into thinking that because insurance companies are late adopters of technology that we could quickly get them up to speed relative to other industries and retire early.

Sword AgencyPort was actually founded after an ex-ETrade employee spent time in a college friend’s insurance company in 2000 and watched business get done on paper. The two found somebody who knew about insurance technology and by helping business move online, they built a successful software business, though early retirement has proved more elusive than planned.

Looking at where Ciboodle can help, the market is highly complex with tens of millions of personal and commercial buyers of insurance and 45,000 independent insurance agencies in the US alone where each state is its own insurance market with its own rules and regulations and products are not interchangeable. This market and supply chain complexity makes customer satisfaction a tall order.

Continue reading…

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Ian Henderson

Can your community be worth more than your product?

by Ian Henderson, on July 28, 2010, in Ciboodler Blogs, about , , , , , .

Some products and services have die hard communities associated with them. Aussie gearheads define themselves as Ford guys or GM guys. Harley Davidson owners buy into a culture with decades of heritage and one of the largest owner’s clubs in the world. They talk about the “feel” and “personality” their bikes have that no other brand does. The point is these people buy into the culture as much as they do to the product. In a lot of cases, the product has obvious deficiencies any sane person would run from. Apple owners would never give up their iPhone for an Android phone, but it’s taken four generations for the Jobs phone to implement basic features many other phones have had for years.

No-one doubts brand power, it’s a well established tenet of marketing. What’s becoming more clear is that technology is beginning to expose what much of that brand power really is: community. Individuals communicating with each other to produce a collective chorus which drowns out any dissenting noise.

Continue reading…

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Gordon McLean

Tasty, Tasty Social CRM

by Gordon McLean, on July 26, 2010, in Ciboodler Blogs, about , , , .

In 1605, William Camden wrote that “The proof of the pudding is in the eating”, and over 400 hundred years later, we are about to find out just how tasty the latest offering from the Sword Ciboodle sweet trolley is… and I think that’s quite enough of that metaphor. I’m talking, of course, about Ciboodle Crowd.

For a while now I’ve been involved in building and maintaining our developer community website TechCiboodle and, as we continue to look to improve, we’ve been looking at a variety of different social media driven features and solutions, specifically those aimed at helping our users share the domain and experience knowledge they all have.

Continue reading…

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Marketing Team

Saving Yourself a PR Nightmare with SCRM

by Marketing Team, on July 22, 2010, in Ciboodler Blogs, about , , , , , , , , , , , .

With the recent release of our socially-focused CRM product, Ciboodle Crowd, I’ve been thinking about PR, social media guidelines, and where various technologies that I use fits within this structure.  Given recent nightmarish headlines from the likes of Nestlé and now a senior CNN editor, it seems that corporate social media policies are growing in debate and complexity.

As an organization, how can you prevent such a debacle or at least mitigate your risk?

Continue reading…

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CJ Werley

Web Self Care: Taking its First Steps in SE Asia

by CJ Werley, on July 20, 2010, in Ciboodler Blogs, about , , , , , , , .

In my job, I talk to dozens, nah scratch that – hundreds of people everyday. My day begins in conversation with the people in my lift, the security staff at my apartment, taxi driver, family, friends, staff, boss, customers, potential customers, partners, building maintenance staff. The day ends in dialogue with the taxi driver, family, friends, security at my apartment, and people in my lift. Then……silence! Sweet, sweet silence!

The evenings, or my few hours of shoosh time, allow me to attend to personal affairs i.e. pay bills, book or change flight details, tag myself into friend’s vacation pictures on Facebook – that I do not appear in (I recommend this), tweet a few Mel Gibson jokes, and check my share portfolio – which resembled the budget of a small Pacific nation in 2006, but today is scarcely enough to buy a Domino’s pizza.

As you can see, I love the Internet. Or the “internets” as George W. Bush calls it. I especially love it as an expatriate living in South East Asia. I save money and time on phone calls, and I don’t  have to face the humiliating rejection of a disconnected call because the Customer Service Agent believed my attempt at speaking the local dialect to be either a crank call or the sound of a person being choked to death over the phone.

Moreover, I love enterprises that allow me to access my account, pay bills, check order status, problem initiation, transfer money, change billing details 365/24/7, all without requiring me to TALK TO ANYONE! Oh, the serenity will set you free…

Continue reading…

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